PEORIA — Mayor Jim Ardis said it would be a recruiting tool for the world’s leading researchers and doctors.

Dr. Sara Rusch, regional dean of the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, called it the “catalyst for transformational change in our community.”

Kevin Schoeplein, CEO of OSF Healthcare, told the audience of some 400 people they were “present for the first step of a revolution in health care and medicine.”

There was no dearth of exuberant praise Thursday for the potential of Jump Trading Simulation and Education Center during the official opening, a blessing and dedication ceremony at its headquarters on the campus of OSF Saint Francis Medical Center.

The center, a collaboration between UICOMP and OSF Healthcare, is a virtual hospital equipped to simulate every stage of patient care — including patients in the form of manikins or trained actors — from ambulance to surgery. UICOMP and OSF Healthcare officials say the center allows them to provide state-of-the-art education and training to medical students, residents, doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians and other health care providers.

A partnership between the University of Illinois’ medical and engineering schools will jump-start Peoria’s involvement in bio-medical research, officials said, encouraging students and professionals from both areas to work together to innovate or improve medical instruments, equipment or clinical techniques.

“Our standing goal is to eliminate all preventable harm, that’s why this center is so important,” he said.

Speakers, from Robert Easter, president of the University of Illinois system, to Sister Judith Ann Duvall, chairwoman of the OSF Healthcare System board, paid tribute to Bill DiSomma, a managing partner in the Chicago-based trading firm, Jump Trading, whose $25 million donation made the center possible.

The DiSomma family’s relationship with St. Francis began in 2004 when a daughter, Rebecca, then 8 years old, was taken to Children’s Hospital of Illinois after an all-terrain vehicle accident on the family farm in Fulton County. The hospital’s care eventually resulted in the $25 million donation, the largest individual gift in the history of UICOMP or OSF Healthcare, and close to half of the center’s $51 million cost.

After the blessing, performed by Bishop Daniel Jenky, groups toured the center’s virtual patient care unit, the virtual intensive care unit, virtual operating theater, virtual reality laboratory and the anatomical skills and innovation labs. One of the largest was a faculty contingent from the University of Illinois’ engineering department in Champaign-Urbana.

Dr. John Vozenilek, chief medical officer of the center, recalled when he started about two years ago, the idea for the center was little more than bare ground and blank paper.

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“The part that’s most stirring is the new technology and the ability to evaluate new technology,” he said. “We’ll be able to put it to the test and make sure it’s delivering on the promises.”

Pam Adams can be reached at 686-3245 or padams@pjstar.com. Follow her on Twitter @padamspam.